The Lottery Ticket Read Online Free PDF Page B

upstairs and were coming down. Without a word spoken Roger pointed to the front room. They knew that their job in the house was completed and that he would soon follow them out after he had searched the front room.
    As he entered this last room to be searched Roger’s eyes swept around the room. He spotted the cabinet with the figurines and the ornaments and instantly knew he had hit the jackpot. With expert ease he prised open the cabinet and with the greatest of care he placed them in his sack. The less valuable ornaments were collected and placed with the rest.
    It was now time to leave. As he walked passed the coffee table he noticed two lottery tickets sticking out from under the table lamp.
    “I might as well take them”, he thought to himself as he slipped them into his back pocket. Maybe this family had a lucky streak. After all, he knew from his daughter that the family had paid for their holiday from the winnings from the lottery.
    He closed the door on the lounge and as he made his way down the hall he was stopped in his tracks again. This time it was the sound of a police siren getting louder and louder.
    His heart was thumping like an ironsmith’s bellows under his shirt as he waited for the siren to fade. “I’m getting too old for this game”, he decided to himself. Once back in the kitchen he bent down to squeeze himself and the bag of treasures carefully through the open panel of the back door. Once out he made his way back down the garden to the fence.
    Bert and Mick had by now crossed the field and were waiting in their respective vehicles. Pete was waiting at the fence ready to take the bag of goodies from Roger. The whole operation had taken them less than twenty minutes. Even by their standards this was very quick. They did however leave behind objects that they would normally have taken.
    Once back at the lane the last sack was loaded into the van and they made their way to the lockup. Job done they all made their way up to Mick’s flat.
    With drinks being passed round the discussion was centred on what each had managed to bag and the speed in which they had achieved their goal.
    Bert was excited by the amount of jewellery that he had found in the dressing table of the master bedroom. Mick on the other hand was quite disappointed with his cache as it was obvious that the rooms he searched were children’s bedrooms. He did however find a small amount of jewellery as well as a couple of watches. Mostly though it was electronic games he had bagged.
    “Did you hear the rattle on the door”, Roger asked the others.
    “Yea, we did”, replied Bert. “I thought they were coming in. I was convinced we’d been rumbled”, he continued.
    “That didn’t scare me as much as when the siren sounded outside after you two had left. I was convinced it was coming to get me”, remarked Roger.
    “It’s not fair, you lot have all the excitement while I feel like a statue wondering if anybody can see me as I stand guard”, piped up Pete.
    “You shouldn’t think like that, you are a vital part of the setup. Without you the jobs would be much trickier”, remarked Roger in an encouraging way.
    By now the time was nearing one in the morning. All except Mick were ready to leave. The time and place for the meeting on Sunday had been arranged and so had the alibi they would need if the police came round. They were playing cards until the early hours at Mick’s should they be quizzed.
    Early on Thursday morning Roger would arrive at the lockup and load the catch from Tuesday nights haul and take it to his ‘fence’ .

Chapter 4  
    The Fence 
    When Roger returned home in the early hours of Wednesday morning he knew that the rest of the family would be in bed. Not wanting to wake up Sandra for no other reason than he did not want to answer the inevitable question as to his whereabouts.
    He decided he would be much happier watching TV until he fell to sleep in the armchair. With nothing planned for the rest